


Blind Days

by Reyemile



Series: Seeing One Another [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-11-29 08:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20960957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyemile/pseuds/Reyemile
Summary: Kagami and Marinette share orange juice, and Kagami shares a secret.





	1. Chapter 1

“Kagami, hi!” Marinette mumbled. Her lips moved despite her best efforts, and one of the pins she was holding slipped out and tumbled into a crack in the floorboards. 

From a phone half a room away, Kagami’s tiny voice replied. “Marinette. I can barely hear you. Are you ill?”

“No, I’m just…” another pin dropped, and a third, and at that point Marinette gave up and let the pink plaited fabric slide off the mannequin and onto the ground. “Arrgh! Just trying to do too many things at once. Kitty Section--that’s a band--got a gig on short notice on Tuesday and I promised I’d make designs for them, and as class representative I have a meeting with the teachers and Principal Monday, and Dad’s been sick so I’m helping in the bakery--”

“You need to cancel our meeting for juice,” Kagami said. “Busy schedule. I understand.”

“Not cancel! Reschedule!” Marinette said from her hands and knees. The design, frilly and pink and sadly uninspired, was almost complete. But those were her last pins, and a trip to buy a new one would eat precious minutes of her day. Slicing open her pincushion for stragglers and cleaning up the mess later would be a better option. Two were unrecoverable, but she managed to find the other four with only two “ows” and one drop of blood to show for it. “I’m totally not the kind of stalker who would memorize their friends’ daily schedules, but I noticed when you were summarizing your weekly agenda that you didn’t mention anything on Wednesdays. I was hoping we could hang out after I’ve wrapped up this latest rush.”

“I see,” Kagami said. 

Marinette rose to her kneel and stared daggers into the recalcitrant pink cloth. She inhaled. Then, contorting her body to hold up one corner with a knee and one hem with her nose, she stuck one, two, three, four pins in place. Once done, she withdrew and prayed for it to hold in place. 

Someone was listening. Namely, Tikki--the Kwami zipped in like a hummingbird to catch a corner before its gravity could take the rest of the skirt with it. 

‘Thank you,’ Marinette mouthed to her partner, before realizing her phone had gone silent. “Kagami?” she asked.

“Yes. I am considering. Wednesday,” Kagami answered slowly. 

Guilt seeped through Marinette’s chest. “I’m sorry that I was such a terrible partner the other day,” she said. Tikki fluttered to her neck and gave her a tiny hug, which did help a little. “I know we started getting along at the end, but I was awful before that. If you don’t want to--

“I’m puzzled. What leads you to believe that I do not want to meet with you?” Kagami asked.

Marinette heard words spoken weeks ago instead. A cool whisper of heated breath in the chill air. “You’re hesitating,” Marinette said. “You never hesitate.”

An indistinct sound came from the speaker, some sort of nonverbal exclamation that even a cutting-edge smartphone mic couldn’t fully capture. But then, Kagami’s voice returned with all of her brusque confidence. “We will have to have our juice at the Tsurugi estate. I will expect you there at 1530 Wednesday afternoon. Will you need a driver?”

“I… um. No? I shouldn’t.”

“Excellent. But before we commit, I must insist on two conditions. They’re important.”

Marinette looked to Tikki, who scrunched her eyes before giving up in a tiny shrug. The Kwami had no idea what was going on, either. “I… conditions?”

“First, when you arrive, I will have to tell you a secret. Please do not share it. We are not yet close friends, but Adrien says you are trustworthy. Can I trust you?”

“Yes!” Marinette said, too quickly. She hated liars, and she hated that she had let herself _ become _a liar out of jealousy. 

_ Besides, it’s not like I’m inexperienced at secret-keeping, _she thought. 

“Second, Adrien has also said that you are a woman of incredible kindness and consideration.”

“A-A-A-drien said that?” Marinette squeaked.

“Yes,” Kagami said. She was always curt, but this one word was even sharper than usual. _ She likes him too, _Marinette reminded herself, feeling guilty all over again. 

“Okay. So you need my help with something?” 

“The opposite,” Kagami explained. “When you visit Wednesday, please refrain from helping. Your natural kindness will be counterproductive. Will you promise?”

“I… what?”

“Will you promise not to help?”

“I guess?” Marinette answered, baffled. 

“1530 Wednesday. Goodbye.” Kagami disconnected with a click, leaving Marinette with a thousand questions. 

But Marinette also had a thousand stitches to complete and a hundred student comments to arrange and collate. And any of that work could be interrupted at any moment by an ill-timed akuma. So, she put her doubts to the back of her mind and got to work. 

\-------------------

Marinette should have left herself more time to get to the Tsurugi estate. She was in no danger of actually being late, of course, but every unnecessary transformation and yo-yo ride had a real, if miniscule, risk of exposing her identity. To compensate for this, she had taken her spots off surrounded on all sides by hedge several blocks from Kagami’s mansion.

She was still picking leaves out of her hair and skirt when she reached the large double doors of Kagami’s house. 

“Okay, Marinette,” the young girl said to herself. “You can do this. Just a normal hang-out with friends in a palace the size of a hotel. It’s not like you’ve ever had trouble with rich people before. It only took four years for Chloe to stop being horrible to you, and you can kinda form sentences around Adrien now, and… this isn’t helping, Marinette, stop making things worse!”

The intercom buzzed, snapping Marinette out of her funk. When had…?

A red blur disappeared into her purse. “Sorry, Marinette! Normally I like to let you learn how to do things by yourself, but this seemed like a case where the best solution was...how did Plagg put it? ‘A swift kick in the rear?,’ That was it, I think!” Tikki tittered her fairy laughter, and Marinette joined in. “You’ve got something…”

“Oh no! Where?” 

Tikki mimed plucking a leaf off her forehead. 

“Here?”

Tikki shook her head and moved her hands higher up her forehead.

“Here?” 

Tikki shook her head again and moved her hands to the left. Marinette moved her hands right. “Here? Ohh, this isn’t helping--ack!”

That last exclamation was prompted with the doors, three times Marinette’s height at least creaked open. “Oh God, I’m still a leaf-covered disaster, I’m sorry Kagami, I must look like a wreck!”

“I wouldn’t know,” Kagami said.

Marinette gave up her leaf-hunt to look at her new friend, “Oh, come on just look… at… me… you’re blindfolded?”

She was indeed blindfolded, with a thick padded eyeless mask covering the top half of her face. It matched the blue of a hakama and gi, the same traditional style her mother preferred. Also like her mother, she held a bamboo sword in front of her as a cane. 

“What’s going on, Kagami?” Marinette asked.

Kagami hesitated.

“Please remove your shoes. There is a cubby in the entryway. Please do not leave any items on the floor where my mother or I might trip. It is also preferable not move any furniture, but the staff will ensure everything is placed properly if you lose track.” Marinette’s host turned and took three carefully measured paces back through the entryway into a sweeping entryway lined with Japanese calligraphy, potted plants, and a suit of Samurai armor in a menacing pose. She reached her left hand to her side, waving it in the air several times with a growl of frustration. Then, the transferred her cane to her left hand and, with her extended reach, found the wall. A few more small steps, and she was walking smoothly again, tracing a path the long way around the room with her fingers. 

“Marinette. Are you coming?”

Marinette’s eyes shot open as she realized she’d been staring.

“On my way!” she said, hopping in the door on one foot as she struggled to get a shoe off. She nearly fell face-first, catching herself on the edge of low cubby at the edge of the hall. It tipped under her weight, and with a strangled ‘eep,’ she flailed in a mostly-successful effort to keep fifteen other pairs of shoes from collapsing in a pile around her. 

She kicked a sneaker into its cubbyhole on one end of the shoe rack. On the other, she very carefully picked up a thousand-euro Gabriel brand stiletto. The awkward stretch landed her solidly on her rump, which at least made it easier to get her other shoe off. 

“Oh no,” she said as she did so. 

“Is something the matter?” Kagami asked.

“Nothing important. I might need to borrow a pair of socks to go home, though. I stumbled through some bushes on the way here and I think I ruined these ones. They’ve got a big run in them.”

“Sato-san?” Kagami asked.

From directly behind Marinette, an accented voice answer. “Yes, MIss Tsurugi?” The surprise made Marinette slip and fall butt-first, _ again, _and she wondered how she missed the tall, stick-thin man who had been standing by the double-doors this whole time. 

“A pair of socks from my drawer for my friend.”

“Yes, Miss Tsurugi.” With precise alacrity, the servant strode towards the curved stairs leading to the mansion’s living quarters. 

Kagami had stepped away from the wall to issue her orders. Now, again, she reached out to try to find the wall that guided her. 

“It’s right behi--” Marinette began to say.

“Do _ not _ , _ ” _Kagami snapped. 

“But I--”

“You promised.”

Marinette froze mid-sentence. _ Please refrain from helping. _ She _ had _ promised. “Sorry,” she said meekly. 

She stowed her shoes and padded towards Kagami on slightly-torn socks. Kagami had used her cane to find the wall, and was back on track by the time Marinette rejoined her. The Japanese girl led her half-French friend through the doors to a spacious dining room done in a more traditional European style that the Japanese ornamentation of the hall. The long table was polished ebony and looked like it could seat thirty guests; the decanter of orange juice at its far end looked tiny in the distance. 

Marinette stuffed her hands into her pockets because it was the only way she could stop herself from grabbing Kagami’s arm to guide her. Fortunately, Kagami made it to her seat with a minimum of fuss, only needing her cane to find the edge of the table. Once she had it, she glided with customary confidence to her seat. Marinette sat opposite her. 

A drop of condensation slid down the side of the pitcher of cold juice. 

“I…” Kagami began. 

“You…?” Marinette asked.

“...am hesitating. I should not be. I should trust you. What I tell you does not leave this room?”

Marinette needed time to process the vulnerability in that request. “You have my word. Is this… some sort of secret sword technique or something?”

Kagami deflected. “Would you pour us some juice?” 

“Sure,” Marinette said. “Wait. Does that count as helping you?”

Kagami smiled at that, a real smile, not the ghastly forced ones that Marinette had suffered through on their ill-fated scavenger hunt. It was gone just as quickly as the fake ones, though. 

“Not if I specifically request it.”

“Okay,” Marinette said. _ Please don’t klutz out please don’t klutz out please don’t klutz out _ , she told herself, and miraculously she obeyed her own order, making two neat, even pours into the provided crystal glasses. Marinette made sure to set Kagami’s down with a loud _ clink _ to help her locate her drink.

“You will keep a secret?” Kagami asked. 

Marinette nodded.

Kagami was quiet, then said, “if you are nodding, I can’t see you.”

“Shoot, sorry, sorry! Yes, I will keep a secret, cross my heart!” Marinette said. She took a big gulp of juice, instinctually hiding her blushing face even though Kagami couldn’t see it. 

Kagami’s first taste of the orange juice was a light sip. “My blind days are… training. For my future,” she said.

“As some sort of fencing thing? Or a meditation exercise?” Marinette asked into her glass.

“No.” Kagami sipped her juice again, hands trembling slightly as she set the cup back down. “On Wednesdays, I live in temporary blindness to prepare for when my blindness becomes permanent.”

Marinette choked on her juice, spewing it across the table.

Kagami’s face froze in concern. “Are you alright?”

Marinette answered quickly as she could through the coughing. “Fuh-fuh-fine! Just a spill! On your million-euro table. Oh no, where are your napkins?” 

“Sato-san!” Kagami called. 

“Already taken care off, Miss Tsurugi” Sato answered from directly behind Marinette. _ How did he… _ Marinette wondered, but her thoughts were interrupted by a second round of coughing.

By the time Marinette could breathe again, Sato had mopped up the spill and disappeared once more into the woodwork. Kagami was silent again, trying to maintain a calm demeanor.

“When. Not if?” Marinette asked. She extended her palm across the table. Kagami couldn’t see it, of course, so slightly embarrassed, Marinette said “I’m offering you my hand if it would help to hold it. It’s right in front of you.”

“The gesture is appreciated but not necessary. Any more crying would waste what time I have. And yes, ‘when.’ Mother’s condition is hereditary and incurable.”

Marinette put her arms back across her lap. “How much longer?”

“If I am very unlucky, 5 years. If I am very lucky, 25. And if your next words are ‘I’m so sorry,’ I will ask you to leave.”

“I’m sooooo…” Marinette began, then halted, swerving around conversational doom like an 18-wheeler driving through an oil slick. “Sooooo… soo… touched that you’d share that with me?”

“You’re welcome.” Kagami drank the last of her juice, and Marinette followed suit.

Marinette squirmed in the ensuing silence. 

Then, she cringed, as Kagami offered a painfully forced smile, nothing like the honest one moments ago. “Did you test your blood ty--”

“Why tell _ me _?” Marinette’s hands shot to her mouth to silence herself. “I’m sorry, that was very rude--”

“It’s a fair question,” Kagami answered matter-of-factly. “There are three reasons. First, as I said, Adrien vouches for you. He is foolish in many ways, but I respect him as a judge of character.”

Marinette blushed, nodded, blushed harder, and said, “I’m nodding right now.”

“Second,” Kagami explained, “This conversation is one I will have many times in the future. I wanted the first time to be with someone…”

“...someone you could afford to alienate,” Marinette said glumly. 

Kagami turned her face directly towards Marinette, and the Parisien native had the distinct impression of a piercing gaze penetrating the thick blue blindfold. “Do not be offended. A randomized scavenger hunt cannot make--what’s the French term, ‘BFFs’?--In a single day. But I am not telling you today just to ditch you. Anything worth doing is worth doing to perfection, and friendship with you is worth doing. Barring further incidents of jealousy, I intend for us to become ‘besties’ in the very near future.”

_ Intense! _ Marinette though, wiping sweat from her brow. _ Petty with the ‘jealousy’ comments, but… I deserve it. _“You said three reasons, though?”

Kagami eased herself back into her chair. “You had to reschedule our juice date due to kindness offered to your classmates. It would be uncouth for me to cancel an appointment entirely because the other party was too nice.”

“Oh,” answer Marinette, moderately overwhelmed. 

More silence.

“Would you like more OJ?” Marinette weakly offered.

“Small amounts of juice provide vitamins and minerals, but it is fundamentally high-calorie sugar-water that should not be consumed in large quantities.”

“Oh.”

Kagami began tapping her finger on the table. 

Marinette squirmed.

Kagami added the rest of her fingers to the motion, rapping out a staccato in time with the ticking of the room’s grandfather clock. 

Marinette checked behind her to make sure that Sato-san hadn’t snuck up on her again, then looked down at her companion hiding in her purse. Tikki had no advice to give, shrugging helplessly.

“I apologize.” Kagami said. “‘Hanging out’ is… uncomfortable to me.” 

“Oh, yeah. I mean, some people can just ‘hang out’ and gab all day, but that doesn’t work for everyone. Though… you never seem to have trouble talking with Adrien.” 

Kagami didn’t answer.

“Oh, shoot, that probably sounded catty and jealous and that totally wasn’t what I meant. I really meant what I _ said, _ not what it _ sounded _like what I said. If Adrien does something that makes it easier for you to talk to him, I can do that, too.” Marinette paused. “Except looking gorgeous. If that’s what you need to talk to me, then I guess we’re out of luck.”

“One,” Kagami interrupted. “Thank you for clarifying your statement. I understand now.”

“Oh, good,” Marinette sighed in relief.

“Two. My manner of speech would not change even if you _ weren’t _pretty, not that your prettiness matters in my current state.” She pointed to her blindfold. “And three… I am used to socializing while training or competing. When fencing, awkward silences are filled by the clash of steel.”

Marinette studiously ignored point two. “Oh, I get it! There’s nothing wrong with wanting a task at hand to make socializing easier,” she said, diving for the thread of conversation like it was a life preserver in a stormy sea. “I guessed that about you, in fact. I brought my sketchbook and measuring tape just in case we needed something to do aside from just talk. But that won’t work while you’re blind. Folded! Blindfolded! You’re not blind. Yet. Ack, sorry!”

Kagami neither smiled nor frowned. Rather, she focused. “No. That’s good. Perfect, even. Today is meant to be training for my future, so we will collaborate verbally on a suitable wardrobe for me. I will need to coordinate outfits even after my vision fades. Going naked only works if everyone _ else _is blind.” She paused. “That was a joke.”

“Heh heh,” Marinette said, scratching the back of her head. “It was well written, I guess? Maybe a little less fervent on the delivery?”

“I will take that into advisement,” Kagami said. She got up, sliding her chair back into place, and used her cane to once more find the wall. Then, she stopped. 

She spoke into the air. “I value independence, as you no doubt gathered from Ikari Gozen. When I am blind, I will maximize my independence. And yet, it will be lessened. I will need to rely on people. On friends.” She tucked her bamboo sword under her left arm and held her right at her hip, akimbo. “Marinette, would you please guide me to my room?”

“Of course,” Marinette said. She stuffed the spare socks into her pocket, rose from her seat, and wrapped her own arm through Kagami’s proffered elbow. “After all, what are friends for?”

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“I refuse to wear anything as restricting as a pencil skirt,” Kagami insisted. 

The fencer was sitting primly on the edge of her bed at the moment, though she was ready for Marinette to demand she stand and twirl at a whim. The designer was sitting on the far side of the room, straddling a high-end ergonomic office chair backwards and using the mesh headrest as an impromptu surface for her notebook. 

“Kagami, I’ve lived through the same Akuma attacks you have. I’m not an _ idiot. _ Remember how I described dark stripes down the sides? They conceal zippers. Or velcro, maybe? Point is, if you need to be able to run, you’ll be able to.”

“Velcro,” said the blindfolded girl. “In a crisis, seconds matter.”

“Well in that case, I’m gonna have to re-do everything we worked on to fit in the scabbard loops and body armor.”

“Touché.” 

The ‘do something’ plan had proven fantastically successful. The designing had been a pleasant surprise of productivity, with a dozen solid ideas and at least two Marinette planned to mock up in cloth. Kagami’s imagination was unhindered by her blindness and she only required a little nudging to keep her suggestions in line--though Marinette had let Kagami make a few mistakes on a few designs, losing track of clashing patterns and uneven coverage, to help make the lesson stronger. 

Better yet, the awkward silences were gone. The two almost always had something to ask. When they didn’t, Marinette turned to her sketchbook and Kagami to _ Les Trois Mousquetaires, _and the sounds of marker on paper and finger on braille made the quiet less oppressive. 

“All right. That is that. I can send you photos of the sketches so you can look at them when the blindfold comes off?”

“That sounds perfect.” 

“And some of these are relatively simple. If you like any of them, I can put them together for you. No trouble at all!”

Kagami stared into the space over Marinette’s shoulder. _ Or is she staring me down, and missing? _ Marinette wondered.

“Out of friendship, I will decline,” Kagami finally answered.

“No, I mean it. It’s no trouble!”

“It would be trouble,” said Kagami. “My only opportunity to wear any of them would un upcoming charity gala at the Grand Paris.”

Marinette was humble about most things (not counting Mecha Strike), but she gave into ambition. “Honestly, I’d kill for a chance to show off my work in front of such an elite crowd.”

“I will be attending it Saturday evening.”

Marinette stuck her tongue slightly through pursed lips and ran the calculations. “No, that’s not a problem. My commission docket is pretty empty right now.”

“So will Adrien.”

“I… oh.”

“As will our parents. Who will expect us to dance.”

“That is…”

“So out of friendship,” Kagami concluded. “I will not ask you to dress me for the occasion.”

“Thank you,” answered Marinette. A stray tear leaked from the corner of her eye, but she mopped it up on her sleeve before it could endanger her sketches. “He’s the elephant in the room, isn’t he? We need to talk about him.”

“Yes,,” said Kagami. She took her book, which was massively thick compared to a normal print edition, and let it slam heavily into her down comforter. Then she traced the wall to her closet. “At some point, I will need to decide if you’re a worthy suitor for Adrien.”

“Ex_ cuse _me?” 

Kagami ignored the outburst. “However, you’re my friend. More importantly, you’re Adrien’s friend. You are not Chloe Bourgeois, and you are _ absolutely _ not Lila Rossi. You aren’t after his name, his money, his power, his reputation.” She faded out and in as she felt around the walk-in wardrobe for a specific pair of dark, glossy flats, returning to her bed once she found them. “You like _ him. _”

“Nodding. Nodding a lot right now. Wish you could see me nodding,” Marinette babbled.

“I don’t know if you’re good enough for his favor, but I’m sure you won’t trample his feelings to get it. Your relationship to Adrien is troubling to me, but it is not a crisis. We can become friends first.”

Kagami sat again and pulled the first shoe over her foot. Her fingers failed to grapple with the small gold buckles on the straps.

Marinette’s imagination began to run away with her. Kagami stood in a toga and blindfold, holding a scale with a tiny Adrien on one side and a tiny Marinette on the other. Under her unseeing judgement, the two swayed back and forth, before the weight of tiny Marinette’s sins sent her tumbling from her little platform. “Unworthy,” pronounced Lady Justice. 

_ Get it together, Marinette! _

Kagami missed the buckle a third time.

“You want to do this yourself?” Asked Marinette. 

“Please.”

She got it on the fifth attempt, but whatever trick she’d figured out worked on the first try for the other shoe. 

“Are shoes something you need to practice a lot?” Marinette asked.

“Everything takes practice,” answered Kagami, standing as she talked. “But I’m putting these on for your benefit. I assume you needed me in dress shoes to take measurements?”

Marinette unrolled her measuring tape. There was no clumsiness here, not while designing. This was her world. Her turf. “I’m happy to do it, but I thought you said…?”

She touched her tape to Kagami’s hip. Kagami jerked and swatted her hand away, raised her own hands halfway into a combat stance, then forcibly relaxed.

“You should warn me before you touch me,” she said sternly. “I can’t see you coming.”

“Right, right. I’ll get the hang of this. I guess I’m training too, huh? Hand up, I’m gonna do hips, waist, and bust. I’m touching your arms now.” Kagami let her hands be guided up and out. Marinette wrapped the cloth strip around her hips, waist, and bust with professional quickness. “So you were saying. This is for…?”

“Paris’s upper crust is capricious. Mother and I occasionally find ourselves swept along by their whims. I would rather see the exorbitant fee for a last-minute ballgown go to a friend than watch it molder in an old white man’s overstuffed checking account.”

_ She thinks I’m good enough to hire? _“Oh, I’m happy to do this as a favor--”

“I will not wear anything of yours that I have not paid for. That is final.” 

Marinette stomped defiantly on the floor. “You are getting a handmade Christmas gift from me, and you are wearing it. _ That _is final,” Marinette said. 

“...I accept your terms.” 

Kagami held out her arm, and Marinette helped her back down to the bed. Marinette checked her watch. 1817, nearly time to leave. But still…

“Anything other training I can help with, before I have to go?” Marinette asked.

“Nothing I would burden you with.”

“Oh,” sighed Marinette. “An Adrien thing?”

Kagami shook her head. “Nothing like that.”

Marinette tilted her head in thought. Then with a slight flush, “oh, is it… um… hygiene?” 

Kagami’s laughter was as terse as the rest of her, a single, “Hah!,” straight from the belly. “No. Nothing like that, either. I’m just… wrestling with matters of family. They do not concern you.”

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” Marinette said. “But don’t hold anything back on my account. I’ve been pretty isolated for a while, but I’ve finally broken out of my shell and connected with--” _ Adrien Chat Alya Adrien Tikki Fu Kagami Adrien _“--some friends. It changes everything. I don’t know how I’d cope with all the crazy in my life without that support network. So, I’m willing to pay it forward.”

Kagami aimed her face down, not-staring at the hand folded in her lap. “I do not need support.”

“No, you need _ practice, _” Marinette said. It was unapologetic manipulation, but it was for a good cause. “That’s why you invited me here, right? To rehearse how you’ll talk with people about your blindness? Well, let’s rehearse whatever you need to say to your family.”

With the gravity of a lead anvil, Kagami answered, “I have lost my passion for fencing.”

“Oh. Wow.” Stunned, Marinette let her eyes wander the room. All four walls were covered in fencing paraphernalia. Above her bed were posted several posters of Tomoe Tsurugi’s championship bouts. Above her door, two crossed sabers hung to provide good luck. On the far wall, rows of trophies, medals, old helmets, and a heavily signed and doodled leg cast were artfully arranged on raised shelves. “From what I’ve seen of your mother, she won’t take that well. Umm. What happened? This isn’t a blindness thing, right? How long have you been losing interest?”

Kagami took a long, heavy breath. “How much of the fight with Ikari Gozen did you see?”

“Bits and pieces?” 

“Did you observe the new temporary hero?”

_ Danger, _warned Marinette’s gut. In an eyeblink, the conversation had moved to topics that risked Marinette’s secrecy, and thus her safety. 

But fear for her own safety would never stop Marinette from helping her friends. 

“I saw Ryuuko burst out of Ikari Gozen’s seams,” Marinette answered cautiously. “And I know that the villain had swallowed you earlier. But I don’t want to make any assumptions, since superhero secret identities are so important.”

“My identity was exposed to Hawk Moth. There are no secrets to keep.” 

“Oh.”

Standing suddenly, Kagami strode across the room. Marinette almost cried out in warning, but the blindfolded girl stopped inches short of the wall before turning around. 

_ I guess it makes sense that she knows her room better than anywhere in the house, _ Marinette thought.

“Since I could walk, I’ve had a sword in my hand and an Olympic podium in my sights.” Kagami spun again, inches from her bed. “My mother is a controlling taskmistress, but on the gold medal, we were of one mind. I would fight my way past all contenders. I would defeat all challengers in the name of country and family.”

The third time Kagami traversed the room, Marinette did not react. 

“Then Ladybug entrusted me with a miraculous,” Kagami continued. “I used my skill with the sword to defend Paris, and to save my mother. I fought for the greater good.”

Trip four ended with her returning to her seat on the bed. “I fought for the greater good. For family. And now, I’m to forget all that and go back to fighting for a _ stupid lump of metal _!”

“Oh,” said Marinette. Her sympathy almost led her to a huge mistake, but with her hand inches away from Kagami, she remembered she couldn’t be seen. “I’m going to touch your knee?”

Kagami nodded. “Thank you for the warning.”

Marinette rested her palm on Kagami’s kneecap and waited for her friend to resume speaking. 

“A thousand wins, the applause of a nation, gold hanging from my neck. I don’t care anymore. None of it will ever matter as much as that one single battle. It’s all pointless!”

“Your mother won’t like that,” said Marinette.

“_ I _don’t like that. Imagine how you would feel if you lost all desire to design. Fencing was my purpose. It was my life.” Kagami’s answer teetered on the edge of control as she fought down unwanted emotion.

Marinette bit her lip. _ This is _ not _ how this was supposed to go, _ she thought. She looked at her purse and found it empty. _ And Tikki’s off wandering so she can’t help. Great. Okay, Kagami. Focused. Passionate. Direct. Doesn’t like mincing words. Go for the throat. _

“So Kagami, don’t take this the wrong way, but… fencing was _ never _ your life.”

“Adrien is--”

_ Abort! Abort! _“No no no no no! I’m talking about swords. Boys don’t play into this. I just mean that you’re overstating what fencing meant for you.”

“Fencing turned me into a supervillain,” Kagami said in a deadly whisper.

“Okay. Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope. _ Hawk Moth _turned you into a villain. Hawk. Moth. Not you. I’m hugging you now.”

“That’s not--oof!” Kagami’s protest was cut off by Marinette’s arms around her waist.

“Hawk Moth is the villain. The _ only _villain. Not. You.” Marinette’s plea was no less insistent for being muffled in Kagami’s gi. 

“So I have been told.”

Marinette squeezed Kagami, then slithered back down to the floor. “About Riposte. I agonized over that call for days afterwards, and I spoke with several experts.” _ And Chat Noir. I wish he hadn’t told me he fenced. Stupid kitty needs to stop dropping hints about his identity! _“I even posted about it on an internet forum, believe it or not.”

“And what should you have ruled?”

“According to the internet, the correct ruling was, and I quote, ‘What are you two bleeping morons doing? This is a _library!_ Get back on the bleeping _piste_!’”

The short, sweet retort of Kagami’s laughter was like music to Marinette’s ears. 

“Kagami,” Marinette said, pressing on with momentum. “You ignored the rules of fencing to engage in a battle. You study foil _ and _ sabre, you train in kendo, and based on that two-finger flourish you showed us, you’ve got some _ gongfu _as well. You quitting fencing isn’t like me quitting design. It’s more like me giving up… giving up… derby hats!”

Kagami’s eyes were hidden behind her blindfold, but Marinette could practically _ hear _her blinking. “Derby hats.”

“I managed to win a hat-design competition and Adrien was going to wear my hat down the runway, but it was covered in feathers--”

“He’s allergic to feathers.”

“--Well I know that _ now. _And then there was an Akuma, and… no. Stop it, Marinette. Adrien’s not here right now, don’t get distracted. You were going somewhere with this. Right. Kagami. Listen, a fencer wouldn’t have danced across half the school, because they’d have been penalized when their foot first left the strip. But you and Adrien went on your wild chase because it was never about scoring that point. It was about the _battle_. You’re not a fencer. You’re a… you’re a…”

“A warrior,” Kagami whispered. 

“Yes!” Marinette’s heart thumped with excitement. “Okay, so ‘warrior’ as a job description isn’t going to be listed in the classified ads. Where does ‘warrior’ take you? I don’t know. But you still have your passion. You still have your _ skill. _Your training and sweat and tears weren’t wasted. All you need is to find something to fight for other than a stupid medal. Find a new goal. Change targets.”

Kagami’s whole body tensed. Marinette was momentarily terrified that running her mouth had gotten her in trouble--_again. _ But before she could apologize--_again _\--the tension evaporated completely. 

“Thank you, Marinette. This… practice… was invaluable. But I don’t want to keep you out late on a school night. And I apologize for my rudeness, but I need to gather my thoughts. Meditation will help me center myself.”

“I understand.” 

“Sato-san will see you out. You may keep the socks.”

“Thanks, I guess. And… see you?”

But Kagami was already cross-legged on her bed, rhythmically exhaling and tuning out the world. _ Weird, _ Marinette thought. _ But in character. She likes to be in control. Not just of the battlefield, but of herself. She fully commits to anything she does. Even meditation. Even… Adrien. _

Marinette swallowed her jealousy. _ Not now. She needs peace. She was a great hero; the Miraculous shouldn’t ever be an experience she looks back on with regret. _

Slowly and silently, Marinette crept out of Kagami’s room closing the door behind her. But before it latched, she just made out the words of a quiet mantra.

“Change. Targets.”


End file.
